Spike Jonze's surreal new short film about the HomePod is likely to go down as one of the year's best Apple ads. The Oscar-winning director's four-minute creation is unabashedly joyful, which is a feeling that sometimes can get lost in all the Apple minimalism. Check out Jonze's playful and creative HomePod ad below.

BlackBerry Limited, the Canadian enterprise software company that used to sell smartphones, filed a lawsuit today against Facebook, alleging that the social network and its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries infringe on BlackBerry messaging app patents. The core of BlackBerry’s complaint, which is a sprawling 117 pages , is that the company’s proprietary and patent-protected messaging product BlackBerry Messenger, known colloquially as BBM, was a cornerstone of modern mobile communications.

Another goal: beat out its trucking rival, Tesla, for the shipping industry’s business. Tesla’s autonomous electric truck is capable of 300 miles before refueling, whereas gas-powered trucks can usually go three times further before stopping. But this brings up an important concern: we don’t know how (and if) Uber’s trucks can handle refueling without a human to do it.

The U.S. government considers there to be possible national security risks in Broadcom's proposed $117 billion acquistion of Qualcomm, enough to warrant a full-scale investigation, the U.S. Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for investment security said in a letter to the two Apple suppliers.

Details regarding what Google is actually providing to the DOD are not clear, but we know the work is part of Project Maven — a Pentagon research initiative to develop computer vision that can better understand video footage. Such technology could have a range of uses in the military, including helping to surveil and track targets using drones and providing the brains for static CCTV cameras in military camps and bases. Technology of this sort can be used to recognize basic objects, like cars and people, but has trouble analyzing complex scenes.

Special for kids — and importantly parents of kids — now you can get designs on visiting Disney — and without dropping a small fortune in the process — thanks to Google Maps after it added Street View images for 11 Disney Parks .

Billy McFarland, the organizer behind disastrous music festival Fyre Fest, pleaded guilty today to two counts of wire fraud. In court, he told a judge he lied to investors and “grossly underestimated the resources that would be necessary to hold an event of this magnitude,” as reported by Bloomberg .

This is true of vendors, but it's also true for any company—and that's pretty much every company—that depends on open source components to run critical aspects of their business. If you don't contribute to the projects you use, you're a passenger on a plane with someone else setting the destination. That's not a good situation, and it's not necessary, given the opportunities for influence that open source affords. Be smart: Contribute more open source code, just like Microsoft.

The latest OnePlus Oxygen comes with a number of handy improvements, many of which did an outstanding job of making the usage of those mobile devices more efficient. One of those improvements is the addition of the Smart Wi-Fi switcher. What this feature does is automatically switch between wireless and mobile data, depending upon which has the best connectivity and signal strength. In other words, you might be bouncing between mobile data and wireless networks, but your device will always (automatically) remain on the strongest network. This is very handy when you're constantly on the go and bouncing between consulting gigs and clients. And the good news is that with later builds of Oxygen the feature is built in, so there's no third-party app to installed.

Open source has become the industry model for practical software development, and its commercial success has been driven in part by adoption from large tech companies such as IBM and Oracle. Walmart and Verizon also rely on open source programs, and host their own open source projects, the post noted.

Google is officially rolling its Lens out to Android phones that have Google Photos installed. This means users will be able to scan things through the app to receive information, like a dog’s breed or a flower type. Users can also create a contact from a business card or identify a landmark. Certain phones will eventually be able to access Lens through the Google Assistant, too, including flagships from Samsung, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Sony, and HMD / Nokia. Google says Lens is rolling out in batches, so you might not get the update right away — sorry!

BlackBerry, which nearly a decade ago was one of the world's largest smartphone makers, has in the past several years retreated into supplying software and services for corporate and government clients. In addition, its QNX software also powers many in-car systems, and the company is placing a bet on smart cars with partner and mobile chip giant Qualcomm .

Google Fiber's popularity seems to extend beyond the survey. An informal poll in the Nextdoor neighborhood discussion forum for one of the neighborhoods where Google Fiber is available asked how the provider compared to Spectrum and AT&T. Almost half of the respondents said Google is better than Spectrum, and another 26% said it was better than AT&T. A total of 15% said it was worse than AT&T or Spectrum.

While Apple’s decision to pull the feature was apparently shared with industry partners two weeks ago, Metro today shared details of a letter titled “The End of iTunes LPs,” originating from “The iTunes Store” and signed by “The Apple Music Team.” According to the letter, while iTunes LP content will no longer be accepted after March 2018 and will be “deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018,” Apple will preserve some access to iTunes LPs: “Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match.”

There’s a lot that make WeWork and Conductor a natural fit. Seth and his team built Conductor to provide the insights, education, and resources their customers need to succeed — in other words, Conductor helps their customers do what they love, and do it better. Conductor has made it easier for us to reach potential WeWork members who are looking for workspace. It’s also helped us get the word out about the services and amenities that we offer to companies of all sizes.

In the lawsuit, BlackBerry alleges it invented features currently being used by Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The features in question include messages with timestamps, tagging friends and family in social media photographs, and an icon that displays the number of unread messages, the lawsuit says.

The company is quick to warn that this test doesn't rule out cancer, and won't diagnose you if you already have it. You'll want to turn to health care providers if you're going to take any action, 23andMe said. And the cancer it's looking for isn't very common. There's a 2 percent risk of it for Askhenazi Jewish women, but less than 0.1 percent for everyone else. It's the first approved test of its kind, however, and it hints at a future where those who aren't willing to wait for formal screenings (or are denied access) can take action early enough to potentially prevent cancer.

Equipped with a new, more energy-dense battery, the Dyson Cyclone V10 is said to last up to 60 minutes, sans that frustrating step down in power many vacuums run into when they're about to shut down. Outdoing its predecessor once again, the Cyclone V10's maximum run time is 20 minutes longer than the Dyson V8.

Saying no to opportunities can be difficult, particularly when you feel like there is a risk of disappointing the person offering you the opportunity. But as Grothaus reported, any “fallout” probably is not going to be as bad as you make it to be. He wrote, “The sky won’t fall, your family won’t stop loving you, and your boss won’t fire you–heck, everyone will probably respect you and your time more if you say ‘no’ more often.”

Apple has once again updated its roster of banks and credit unions supporting Apple Pay, this time adding 20 more U.S. entities.
As has become standard, the new card issuers are regional rather than national. Most national U.S. institutions were onboard with a year of Apple Pay's Oct. 2014 launch, ushered in by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
The full list of additions includes Anahuac National Bank, ASI Federal Credit Union, Auburn State Bank, BankSouth, Burbank City Federal Credit Union, CentralAlliance Credit Union, Columbine Federal Credit Union, Connections Bank, DCH Credit Union, Hastings Federal Credit Union, Iowa-Nebraska State Bank, Lea County State Bank, LegacyTexas, McCook National Bank, Minnesota Valley Federal Credit Union, Peoples Bank [Okla.], St. Francis X. Federal Credit Union, TS Bank, West Suburban Bank, and Winchester Savings Bank.
The bigger obstacle for Apple stateside has been merchant adoption, since chains have been slow to upgrade their payment infrastructure. Big-box retailers Walmart and Target have actively refused to embrace Apple Pay, favoring their own in-house standards instead.

Volvo turned its race-tuning sub brand Polestar into its own company with a focus on electric performance last year, and at the Geneva Motor Show this week it revealed the Polestar 1 GT, a hybrid electric car that’s designed to go toe-to-toe with Tesla for performance-loving customers eager for alternative powertrain options.

Although the notch at the top of the iPhone X display drew quite a bit of criticism, many Android makers like the idea. LG might become the next to release a device that resembles Apple’s flagship phone.

Microsoft's latest Surface Pro is made for mobile computing, with an embedded eSIM, an external SIM tray, and software support for fast cellular connectivity. But is built-in mobile networking worth the $150 price tag?

Using Store in iCloud , you can choose to have your Mac keep your Documents and Desktop folders on your iCloud Drive. Then, when your Mac gets too full, it will delete the local copies. If you need that file in future, it will be downloaded on demand. This works exactly like the iCloud Photo Library’s optimized storage, where the Mac (or iPhone) stores your photos in iCloud, and only keeps thumbnails locally, downloading the full-sized versions as you need them.

When you’re thinking about making a career change, especially one that requires switching industries, it’s easy to assume you’ll have to lower your standards in order to get your foot in the door. This can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So your next step really is just changing your own mind-set: Take “overqualified,” “affordable,” and “too expensive” out of your vocabulary–and realize that appraising your value is fundamentally an employer’s job, not yours.

As for those old, corded vacuums, these aren't going away just yet. So, if you’re not comfortable with the idea of a wireless vacuum, Dyson still has you covered. The company claims that its new Cyclone V10 is just as powerful as any wired model, though, and its founder is confident that consumers will make the leap with him.

And now, we're adding another dimension: the home office. In a recent survey, 74% of workers said they'd be willing quit their job to work for a company that allowed them to work from home. As the number of people who work out of their home grows, it's important to make your home work space as productive as possible. So we're going to look at the technologies and products that can make your home office smarter than ever.

"Words can't express how excited I am to join the Airbnb team," Greeley said in a prepared statement. "I've used Airbnb for years, and the chance to work here and expand the positive impact its community is having around the world is a once in a lifetime opportunity."